Concert & Venue Review - Mayhem@Cabooze - 2017

Cabooze is a fairly nifty music club located on the southeast side of Minneapolis. Being away from downtown, parking is free on the street as well as the venue's parking lot. There is also a train stop right across the street from the venue as well, allowing easy access to those of us who don't want to have to stumble too far to the venue after going overboard on the pre-gaming. Upon entrance to the club, you may or may not be asked so show ID for being over 21, as it seems to depend on who's working that particular night. The staff are generally on the no-fucks-given side as long as you're not being an asshole, which is great for large pits and stage diving. There are no security barriers between the stage and the crowd unless a band requests for one. Unfortunately on this night there was a barrier but I don't fault the venue here and I'm going to assume that it was upon Mayhem's request (I have no basis for this but they seem the type). Two bars located at the entrance and at the back of the building on either sides of the stage allow for some well-needed ease of access considering the elongated rectangle shape of the building makes it impossible to move from one side to the other once the crowd packs in. The 3 oz shots are $5 dollars and tall boys are $4, making this one of the cheapest venues around for getting a drink on.

Each show I’ve had the fortune of seeing at the Cabooze has had excellent sound quality, especially for a venue of somewhat low-key nature. Sound checks and stage setups are performed pretty quickly which I love, props to the sound man here. As mentioned earlier, the floor area in front of the stage fills up quick, so luckily there are two elevated locations in the hall located across from the stage on the south wall as well as a balcony in the back of the building, although your vision may be obscured slightly here based on the stage arrangement. Overall, the Cabooze is a great place to see a more intimate show in comparison to other Minneapolis venues such as Mill City Nights.

This show was my first experience seeing or even hearing the New York black metallers. I was aware of the fact that they had just released a new album, As Was so I figured this would be as good a time as any to get into their music. They started off on a high note, with ravaging black metal tremolos, blast beats, and black shrieks. The crowd was getting into it when suddenly the headbanging turned into head shaking when the metal was stripped out of the riffs and some fairly emo singing completely gutted the good start to their set. Each of the four or five songs the band played consisted of the same formula of solid black thrash with interludes of flat acoustic or progressive segments teetering on the edges of bad hardcore. The drumming performance of Raeph Glicken was the only positive aspect when all was said and done. My research after the show found that Black Anvil have actually made some decent albums in the past but their description on Bandcamp of As Was sums it up nicely; “BLACK ANVIL return with As Was, a staggering, complex, and thought-provoking work of modern black metal art!” AKA: pretentious garbage.

Inquisition-

The first time I heard Inquisition I thought it was a joke band, with the frog-like vocals and over-the-top satanic lyrics and image. With the release of Obscure Verses For The Multiverse in 2013, I began to see that Dagon is possibly the best riff writer in all of black metal. Since that point, the frog-like vocals grew on me to the point where I actually appreciate them for capturing the evil inhuman essence of what black metal was originally founded as. Am I an Inquisition fanboy? Hell yes, and if you’re not, all it will take is one live performance from the Seattle duo to sway you otherwise. This night was no different as Dagon and Incubus took the stage with full fury. Having also recently released a new album, Bloodshed Across The Empyrean Altar Beyond The Celestial Zenith, I was hopeful the band would vary their 45 minute setlist up a bit with some old classics as I found their latest to also be their weakest. My wishes were realized early on with their second song of the night, ”Dark Mutilation Rites”. As soon as the song began the crowd went nuts, to my surprise it seemed I was in a room full of people who also went to the show specifically for Inquisition. From this point on, I was enthralled within a whirlwind of a never-ending moshpit, with the groovy black metal madness blazing away the world outside of this room. The few moments I had to glimpse at the stage through all the craziness revealed the music flowing through Dagon, as his signature trance-like movements ebbed and flowed through his body, dancing to his ritual of riff mastery. The stage presence Dagon and Incubus create is truly astounding. As a two piece they create a cohesive unit that is incomparable to anything I’ve seen on stage. Long story short, I have no idea what songs they played after “Dark Mutilation Rites”, but after this much fun it doesn’t really matter.

Mayhem-

Mayhem have a spotty track record of hit or miss performances but the idea of them playing their debut in full was very intriguing. After being ravaged by Inquisition’s set I took to the balcony as I expected a more theatrics-based show based on the crowd barrier and having seen Mayhem and Atilla perform in the past. If De Mysteriis Dam Sathanas is your thing you will not be disappointed as the band played no more or no less than the entire album in order without breaks. Atilla nailed the obscure nature of the vocals and patterns on the album and Hellhammer put on a mind blowing performance on the kit. While I was impressed with the performances, the sound was the true gem here. If anything the icy chaotic riffs sounded even more evil than on the original 1994 recording as Hellhammer’s snare hits resonated through the hall with each drum roll. There wasn’t a whole lot of movement in the crowd but I feel it was because it was in respect of the spectacle in front of them more than a lack of interest. If this package is coming to a town near you, go for Inquisition and stay for the legendary Mayhem and De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas.

Unfortunately we had some camera issues but there are still a few images in The Gallery